Tickets for the Lincoln Center engagement starting at $25 can be purchased at the David H. Koch Box Office, by phone at 212-496-0600, and online at www.alvinailey.org.

This is Danica Paulos, dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. I am sending this postcard from my room in New York City, inviting you to come and enjoy some beautiful dancing at Lincoln Center this week from June 14-18. Tonight is opening night for the company at the David H. Koch Theater, and I couldn't be more excited. Our Artistic Director, Robert Battle, has brought some exciting repertory into the company’s vault that is taking Ailey to new heights, and is challenging the dancers to reach different levels of artistry. I hope you will come and share your excitement and energy with us from the audience. You don’t want to miss this!

In preparation for the Lincoln Center engagement (and our international tour), we have been working hard in rehearsals. The newest ballet to our repertory is Mass, a ballet choreographed by Robert Battle. We are also performing Johan Inger’s Walking Mad, MacArthur fellow Kyle Abraham’s Untitled America, Ailey dancer Hope Boykin’s r-Evolution, Dream., Mauro Bigonzetti’s Deep, Robert Battle’s Ella, Billy Wilson’s The Winter in Lisbon, and last but not least, we will be closing every single performance with our founder, Alvin Ailey’s masterpiece, Revelations.

The ballet that I am most excited to perform is Robert Battle’s Mass, which will be performed with live music. Mass was choreographed for The Juilliard School in 2004, and was restaged for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in three weeks by Ailey dancer Elisa Clark.

Dancing with live music is truly a privilege and the musicians whom we are performing with are unbelievably talented. This ballet is a must-see for the season. Whenever I get to perform one of Mr. Battle’s works, something magical happens onstage. His ballets are physically demanding, and there is often a moment that I have onstage when I realize how fully invested I am in the work. That feeling is truly celestial. Being given the chance to “go somewhere else” onstage is a gift to me, and I'm incredibly humbled yet ecstatic that I get to go there onstage tonight in my first performance of Mr. Battle’s piece.

The Company after Completing Mass rehearsal. Photo by Linda Celeste Sims

Ailey’s five-day, seven-performance engagement at Lincoln Center begins today. I am so excited to perform for my friends and the beautiful people who come to watch us dance. This is the beginning of my fourth year with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, my 24th birthday is next week, and I am healthy and happy. It is a marvelous time to be alive!

Love,

Danica

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